Appeal maintainability turns on aggrieved assessee status; misdescription in the title is a curable irregularity, not fatal.

An assessee aggrieved by an assessment may maintain an appeal, and the right is not defeated merely because the appeal papers misdescribe the appellant's name if the competent person actually filed and signed them. Here, the wife was treated as the aggrieved assessee because the tax liability could be recovered from her and the legal heirs in the circumstances. The Tribunal also rejected reliance on the presumption of death under the Evidence Act, as the appeals were filed before seven years had elapsed from the date the husband was last heard of and no proof of death was produced. The incorrect title was only a curable irregularity, not a fatal defect.

---

---

Issues: Whether the appeals filed by the wife in the name of her husband were maintainable, and whether the defect in the title and verification of the appeal forms was a fatal invalidity or a curable irregularity.

Analysis: The wife had filed the appeals and signed them, but the husband's name was shown in the titles. The Tribunal held that the right of appeal is available to a person who is an assessee aggrieved by the assessment, and that tax liability arising from the assessments could be recovered from the wife and the legal heirs in the circumstances of the case, making her an aggrieved assessee. The Tribunal further held that the presumption of death under the Evidence Act did not assist her because the appeals were filed before seven years had elapsed from the date the husband was last heard of, and no proof of the date of death had been produced. However, the wrong mention of the husband's name in the title of the appeal did not affect the competence of the appellant who had actually filed and signed the appeals; it was only an irregularity capable of being cured by rectification of the title.

Conclusion: The appeals were maintainable and the defect in the title did not render them invalid.

Ratio Decidendi: A person who is an assessee aggrieved by an assessment may maintain the appeal, and a misdescription in the title of the appeal is not fatal where the competent appellant has in fact filed and signed it.

---